The University of Hawaiʻi System, formally the University of Hawaiʻi and popularly known as UH, is a public college and university system that confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three universities, seven community colleges, an employment training center, three university centers, four education centers and various other research facilities distributed across six islands throughout the state of Hawaii in the United States. All schools of the University of Hawaiʻi system are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The UH system's main administrative offices are located on the property of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Honolulu CDP.
This paper estimates the welfare impacts of natural resources by analyzing Ghana’s offshore oil discovery and subsequent production. It finds substantial increases in real income, but no effect on consumption and poverty. The income effects are stronger for skilled workers. Estimates of the effects of oil discovery on employment show that employment in general increased by 4 percentage points. The positive employment effects are largely concentrated in non-oil local sectors: manufacturing and construction. The findings do not show significant impacts on employment in the agriculture and service sectors where a large proportion of individuals below the poverty line are engaged. This largely explains why the oil discovery had no effect on poverty reduction, as it benefited the non-poor rather than the poor.
Global change is reshaping below-ground biodiversity, yet how soil nematode communities respond to concurrent climatic stressors remains unresolved. We performed a global meta-analysis of 106 experimental sites to quantify the impacts of elevated CO2, warming, and altered precipitation on nematode abundance and Shannon diversity across Koppen climatic regions and four ecosystem types (deserts, farmlands, forests, grasslands). Elevated CO2 increased total nematode abundance by 23.2 % in temperate farmland. Warming reduced the abundance of bacterial-, fungal-, plant-feeding, and omnivorous-predatory nematodes by 44.5-65.2 % in arid grasslands/deserts, but increased the abundance of plant-feeding nematodes by 37.8 % in temperate farmland. Reduced rainfall generally suppressed abundance (e.g., plant-feeding nematodes: -71.2 % in arid grasslands), except for fungal-feeding nematodes which increased 350 % in tropical farmland. Increased rainfall depressed nematodes in cold-temperate farmland (total: -24 %) but stimulated bacterial-feeding nematodes (+117.1 %) and plant-feeding nematodes (+85.9 %) in adjacent grasslands. Significant Shannon diversity declines occurred in arid deserts and temperate farmlands under warming and reduced rainfall. Arid ecosystems emerged as vulnerability hotspots to warming and reduced rainfall, while temperate farmlands faced distinctive agroecological risks from the warming-driven proliferation of plant-feeding nematodes. These findings demand regionspecific conservation strategies for soil biodiversity preservation under climate change.
Accurate estimation of Aboveground Biomass Density (AGBD) is essential for understanding carbon cycling and informing forest management and climate mitigation strategies. This study evaluates the use of Fay-Herriot (FH) models to estimate AGBD by integrating metrics from spaceborne LiDAR (GEDI), airborne LiDAR (ALS), and their combination. We assessed predictive performance across two contrasting forest environments: eucalyptus plantations in Hawai'i and Mediterranean pine forests in Spain. Four estimation methods were compared at each site: FH models using only ALS data, only GEDI data, both data sources combined, and direct estimation using only field data. A model selection process was employed to identify candidate predictors, and all models were rigorously evaluated. To assess the performance of each estimator, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and relative efficiency-compared to direct estimation-were used as indicators. The results demonstrate that FH models, regardless of the auxiliary variables used, consistently outperformed direct estimation methods, as evidenced by lower RMSE values. Relative improvements over direct estimations were 18 %, 19 %, and 21 % for ALS, GEDI, and their combination in Hawai'i; and 31 %, 29 %, and 31 % for the respective auxiliary datasets in Spain. Combining ALS and GEDI yielded only marginal improvements over using each set individually. Furthermore, both datasets exhibited comparable performance. Regarding the predictors, structural metrics related to vertical complexity emerged as key drivers of performance. Together, these results demonstrate that both ALS and GEDI data substantially enhance AGBD estimation within FH frameworks, with GEDI providing a cost-effective alternative at operational scales where ALS data are unavailable.
Understanding the host preferences of non-native polyphagous insects is a key step in anticipating their impacts. We apply a technique from wildlife ecology, a resource selection function, to quantify the host preferences of Acalolepta aesthetica Olliff (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) in its non-native range on the Island of Hawai'i. We then visually surveyed its preferred host to map its distributional extent and conducted laboratory no-choice tests to assess risks to common native woody species. The preferred host of A. aesthetica was the state tree, Aleurites moluccanus (L.) Willd., the kukui (or candlenut). Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) was the second most preferred host. Infestations were also observed in Citrus species, Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg ('ulu or breadfruit) and Persea americana Mill. (avocado), but preferences among these taxa were statistically indistinguishable. Acalolepta aesthetica females oviposited on all tested species in no-choice trials, but larvae growing within '& omacr;hi'a (Metrosideros polymorpha Gaudich.) and koa (Acacia koa A. Gray) died. It therefore poses a low risk to these two tree species, which are foundational to Hawaiian native forests. Acalolepta aesthetica was able to complete its development within '& omacr;lapa (Cheirodendron trigynum (Gaudich.) A. Heller), which could be monitored if the distribution of A. aesthetica spreads to native forests. The host species preferred by A. aesthetica are highly valued for agricultural, horticultural and cultural uses. Developing monitoring and management techniques for this cerambycid and employing strong biosecurity could prevent human-mediated spread and limit negative impacts to other Hawaiian Islands, the U.S. mainland, and the world.
We report on the optimization of in situ passivation of ink-based CuIn(S,Se)(2) thin-film solar cells via controlled incorporation of Al2O3 in CuIn(S,Se)(2) films by the addition of Al(NO3)(3) to the molecular ink precursor. For this purpose, the Al/(Al + In) (AAI) metal ratio was varied from 0.05 to 0.30. We observe that the efficiency of the cells made of Al2O3-incorporated CuIn(S,Se)(2) is consistently higher than those without Al2O3, especially due to an improvement in open-circuit voltage (V-OC) and fill factor (FF), for all tested AAI ratios. With an AAI of 0.05, a maximum efficiency of 11.2% and an average efficiency of 8.5% (measured across 18 cells) was achieved, compared to 8.5% maximum efficiency and 6.5% average efficiency for Al-free CuIn(S,Se)(2). Furthermore, we find that cells made of Al2O3-incorporated CuIn(S,Se)(2) with an AAI of 0.2 show a narrow distribution in the photovoltaic performance, indicating higher reproducibility and higher FF. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy shows that, at AAI = 0.2, Al2O3 is distributed more homogeneously at the surface of the Al2O3-incorporated CISSe. Capacitance-voltage measurements reveal a reduced defect density by incorporation of Al2O3, which could be partly responsible for the higher V-OC. Furthermore, using detailed surface analysis with various X-ray and electron spectroscopy methods, we derive chemical and electronic structure information from the surface. With ultraviolet photoelectron (UPS) and inverse photoemission spectroscopies (IPES), the electronic band gap of the CuIn(S,Se)(2) thin-film surface is found to increase from 1.22 to 1.88 eV (+/- 0.12 eV) with Al2O3 incorporation. This is accompanied by a clear reduction of the conduction band spike at the CdS/CISSe interface due to Al2O3 addition, as derived by both UPS and IPES as well as temperature-dependent V-OC measurements.
